A lawmaker from the Tucson area was pushing for a bill to give more low-income Arizona kids free school lunches. The bill is now dead, but the issue of funding for the plan could still come up in budget talks.
The bill HB 2213 by Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, which would have given low-income Arizona children free school lunches for a cost of $3.8 million, did not move past committee hearings.
The bill was supported by both Democrats and Republicans and passed the education, spending, and rules committees as well as the Committee of the Whole.
In February, the funding committee changed the bill so that these lunches could not have ultra-processed foods.
She had to wait weeks for a third read, but she was told her bill would not move forward.
In a message on her TikTok account, Gutierrez, a Democrat, said she would start an official protest on the floor.
It’s becoming political to feed kids, and I’m not going to stand for it, Gutierrez said in her video.
She told her fans to email the governor, Republicans in the Arizona State House and Senate, and other Republicans to ask them to include this money in the state budget.
Students can get a reduced-price lunch if their family makes a certain amount of money.
The amount of $3.8 million is “a drop in the bucket” compared to bills backed by Republicans that would protect the border and cost between $50 million and $100 million.
“The fact that I’m a teacher and have seen the difference food makes makes it clear to me that it does matter,” Gutierrez said. “Kids can’t learn if they don’t eat.” In a sense, we are setting them up to fail.
The Arizona House Democratic Caucus’s communications director, Robbie Sherwood, said that even though the bill’s progress has been stopped, “the battle is lost, but not over.”
He said, “I won’t rest until that money is in the budget.” “This fight for our students to eat will not end.”
